By ROSA CIRIANNI
PISCATAWAY, N.J. September 25 – The Dalai Lama told a sold-out crowd at Rutgers University Stadium on Sunday that he didn’t believe in killing or war but rather compassion and forgiveness.
The Tibetan spiritual leader advocated frank and honest communication in dealing with political and personal conflict.
“This whole planet is just us,” he said. “Therefore destruction of another area essentially is destruction of yourself. That’s the new reality.”
About 36,000 people poured into the stadium to hear the Dalai Lama speak.
A row of monks, wearing their traditional brightly colored orange and maroon attire, were among at least a few dozen people who sat on blankets or mats spread across the 10- and 20-yard lines on the field near the stage.
Lu Choi of Mongolia, who now lives in Philadelphia, came to the event wearing his traditional monk garb, a gold robe – or deli- and an elaborate headdress. He left his home at 5 a.m. with friends and family and met others from New Jersey for the event.
Choi and his caravan have seen the Dalai Lama many times before, most recently in Washington, D.C. and said the record crowd at Rutgers was no surprise, because the Dalai Lama draws people from all over the world.
Zaya, a woman in Choi’s group, who did not want to release her last name, said America is in need of the Dalai Lama’s blessings, particularly for the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita that have struck the gulf coast.
The Dalai Lama lives in exile in India and also acts as the political head of state for the Tibetan people. He left his country in 1959, after unsuccessful peace talks with China which invaded Tibet in 1949.
The Buddhist monk wants Tibet to become a “Zone of Peace” in the heart of Asia, where people can live in harmony, according to The Office of Tibet in New York, which acts as the official agency for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in the Americas.
The Dalai Lama’s message of advocating peace and nonviolence have made him an internationally known figure.
Those ideals led David Hughes, a research chemist who lives in Pennington, N.J., to read several Dalai Lama books.
“I’ve been very impressed with his philosophy of accepting everybody and his compassion,” Hughes said. “That’s something that I think is missing in America.”
